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Upon reading “In a Sunburnt Country” by Bill Bryson (Thanks Tracy!)
there was no better way to put it:

“Each time you fly from North America to Australia, and without anyone asking how you feel about it, a day is taken away from you when you cross the international date line. I left Los Angelos on January 3 and arrived in Sydney fourteen hours later on January 5. For me there was no January 4. None at all. Where it went exactly I couldn’t tell you. All I know is that for one twenty-four-hour period in the history of earth, it appears I had no being.

I find that a little uncanny, to say the least. I mean to say, if you were browsing through your ticket folder and you saw a notice that said “Passengers are advised that on some crossings twenty-four-hour loss of existence may occur”…. “

This time to Australia in particular, I managed to get onto 4 different planes in a matter of about 27 hours. How I survived, I do not ever know. What happened on Friday, February 9th… I do not know. My body is confused, my mind wanders, and all I can think of is the feeling of a shower, some proper food, a change of clean clothes, and some undisturbed sleep.

—

A little note about food on airlines-
My flight to LAX with Air Canada, lasting around 5hrs and a half DID NOT come with any food. Sitting next to the kitchen where countless orders of instant noodles ($$) were made did not help at all.

My flight to Brisbane, Australia with Qantas however came with two meals and a snack. At this point, it was 11:20p.m (LA time), and I hadn’t eaten in 12 hours. I was tired, and hangry- a combination you never want to witness. I didn’t think I was going to make it. To distract myself, I ranted out in my journal asking in vain WHEN THE FOOD WILL COME. I managed to fall asleep right after takeoff, but would wake up every 20 minutes or so because I was afraid they would see me sleeping and cut me short on the food I desperately needed. It reached a point where I was going to bib myself with the words “WAKE ME UP WITH FOOD” Thankfully it wasn’t necessary as I woke up shortly after the thought with the smell of butter chicken and rice. To put in short, Qantas is a great airline for food service. They even provided sandwiches and refreshments for my 20 minute flight to Canberra from Sydney. I was ecstatic. It was glorious.